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At a Memorial Ceremony, Loss and Tension

By Andy Newman September 11, 2010 8:30 amSeptember 11, 2010 8:30 am

Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesLuke Pavlenishzili, 2, on the shoulders of his father, George Pavlenishzili, offered a rose to Joe Huber, a New York firefighter who was guarding the reflecting pool. Luke’s uncle, Vlad Savinkin, died on 9/11.

Updated, 12:19 p.m. | Thousands of relatives of the 9/11 dead gathered in a park near ground zero on Saturday morning for the ninth annual reading of their names as a nation debated whether a mosque and Islamic community center should be built near ground zero and a president pleaded for religious tolerance.

They filled a makeshift plaza in Zuccotti Park, beside a construction site sprouting cranes and American flags where 4 World Trade Center is rising, carrying cups of coffee and bouquets of flowers, wearing the sweatshirts and T-shirts and ball caps of the Port Authority police, the New York State emergency medical technicians, the New York Fire and Police Departments and many other agencies.

And on another crystal-clear September morn, a few degrees cooler than the one engraved on a city’s heart, they held aloft posters and photos of the departed whose captions told the story of that day and of this one.

From the stage, however, the ceremony kept strictly to remembrance and steered clear of politics.

“No other public tragedy has cut our city so deeply,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said moments before a firefighter rang a silver bell at 8:47 a.m., signaling the moment the first plane hit the first tower.

“No other place is as filled with our compassion, our love and our solidarity,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “It is with the strength of these emotions, as well as the concrete, glass and steel that is brought in day by day, that we will build on the footprints of the past the foundation of the future.”

Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesFamily members of the 9/11 victims at the reflecting pool during the ceremony of ninth anniversary of 9/11.

After the mayor spoke, pairs of readers, some poised, some tearful, took turns reading a dozen or so names apiece – one reader was a victim’s son or daughter or widow, the other an iron worker or architect or electrician on the mammoth project to rebuild the area.

The actor Kristin Chenoweth belted out “Borrowed Angels,” a song for the fallen.

But mostly, the morning belonged to the victims and the simple litany of their names – 2,752 were read aloud, flowing unstoppably from the mouths of those who mourned them yet.

An older woman burst into tears as she finished her reading. “Let today never ever be a national holiday. Let it be forever somber.”

Nearby, weeping women in funeral dress and sunglasses, men in uniform and children in T-shirts emblazoned with photographs of smiling faces dropped roses, one for each name, into a circular pool of water until the sharp blue sky reflected in it was blotted out by a carpet of bloom.

At 9:03, the bell was rung again to signal the moment the plane struck the south tower. In the silence that followed, a sparrow twittered. The muffled roar of traffic reached the plaza. Police officers on the roof of the building across the street scanned the skies with binoculars.

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York TimesFamilies gather at Zuccotti Park, where names of the victims are read on the ninth anniversary of 9/11.

Before the ceremony began, even amid the hugs and tears, the divisions were apparent.

Around 7:25 a.m., as a choir finished “The Star-Spangled Banner” and families trickled in to the plaza, a blond woman faced the media riser and held up a photograph of a woman with short brown hair.

“Today is ONLY about my sister and the other innocents killed nine years ago,” read the text beside the photo.

As the cameras snapped, the woman began to cry. An older man came over and gave her a hug. She said something about the impossibility of closure, and he told her, “I know exactly how you feel.”

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York TimesAlyson Low, whose sister was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, hugs Nick Chiarchiaro, whose wife and niece worked in the north tower.

As it turned out, the woman’s sister was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower, where the man’s wife and niece were working.

Then the woman, Alyson Low, 39, a children’s librarian in Fayetteville, Ark., explained what she meant by her sign.

“I’m tired of talking about everything else, tired of the politics,” she said. “Today is only about loss.”

For the man, Nick Chiarchiaro, it wasn’t.

After he told the story of his last morning with his wife before she went off to work at Fred Alger Management on 93rd floor of the north tower, Mr. Chiarchiaro, 67, a designer of fire alarm systems, segued into the other topic of the day.

“A mosque is built on the site of a winning battle,” Mr. Chiarchiaro said. “They are symbols of conquest. Hence we have a symbol of conquest here? I don’t think so.”

Hours later, after the sun had cleared the skyline and flooded the plaza, the reciting of the names continued. Each bereaved reader finished his or her list with the name of the loved one lost. A boy named Joseph Scparta read out his complement and concluded, “and my uncle, Firefighter Leonard Ragaglia.”

A man named Roman Gertsberg read out the name of his daughter, Marina Gertsberg. “May God bless you,” he said.

After Geraldine Halderman made it through her list, her voice thickened for the final name.

Just after noon, the last name was read, and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City trooped onstage in sashes of blue and orange and yellow and purple and red, and performed “Keep Me In Your Heart” to a plaza that had already mostly emptied.

The mayor spoke again. A trumpeter faced ground zero and began to blow taps. A second trumpeter joined him in a round, and then a third – three men from the New York Police Department, the Fire Department and the Port Authority police, their clarion calls rising to the sky.

Then the firefighter at the silver bell struck it one more time and departed, and the last of the families filed out into the brightness of midday.

Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesNew York City police officers line up at the reflecting pool before the start of the ceremony of the ninth anniversary of 9/11.

I was raised in Spain. The Cordoba mosque is NOT a symbol of victory of Islam over Christianity. On the contrary, Queen Isabel and King Fernando (The Catholic Kings) built an altar in the middle of the mosque to symbolize the victory of Christianity over Islam. Whoever told that poor man such a stupid story is a fool – or he got the facts wrong. Americans: PLEASE TEACH HISTORY IN SCHOOL!!

What don’t our illiberal, supposedly “liberal,” Islamist-loving friends understand about the triumphalist philosophy of the Ground Zero mosque? Why do they refuse to read the history of Cordoba–or, more to the point, the Koran? Why do they not react with dismay to the nefarious background of the supposedly liberal imam Rauf? Why do they consistently take out of context what opponents of this mosque are saying? Why do they hurl ad hominems, such as “reactionary,” “neocon,” and “radical right,” instead of logical arguments? Methinks the elites of academia and media, who have now infiltrated government, are so full of themselves and their superior philosophy that they have forgotten all about the “real” people of this country who clearly recognize that The Emperor Has No Clothes!

It’s such a shame that the memory of 9/11 for the survivors, and for all of us, has been used by bigoted and corrupt politicians on the far right as a wedge issue to attack the President, his political party, and one of the major world religions, and to divide Americans.

9/11 is indeed about those who died, and their survivors. This is the heart of the remembrance ceremony today. Not the interfaith cultural center being created in the old Burlington Coat Factory out of sight of the 9/11 site. Not whether this party or that wins elections in November. Not whether the members of a major religion with over a billion adherents should be denied equal rights under our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

We have had enough of political posturing, indeed. Let’s honor those who died, and after all these years, finally finish creating a lasting memorial to them on the actual site of 9/11.

It is hard to see how we are to “be sensitive” to those who lost loved ones on 9/11 if they are all so willfully ignorant and obtuse as Mr. Chiarchiaro. While Mosques and Churches have sometimes built to thank the almighty for military outcomes, this doesn’t mean that all Churches or Mosques are “symbols of victory.” Besides, no one has suggested building a Mosque in Tribeca (although there is one that predates the Towers) and I’ve NEVER heard of a YMCA being built as a symbol of victory.

I sympathize with his pain, but it does not give him the right to slander others.

Mr. Nick Chiarchiaro hit the nail on the head. The so-called Islamic Center or mosque is a mark of conquest, to mark a successful attack on Dar ul Harb or the ‘impure land’ of infidels. When will Americans recognize the truth that Islam is a political ideology whose goal is bring the world under Shariat to be ruled according to the teachings of Allah.

Can the Islamic religion live down it’s guilt for this vast atrocity, unprecedented in world history? For guilt it is, this devastating act of brutality was and is largely approved and endorsed by vast numbers of Islamic people worldwide, and the teachings of this faith can and do lead to violence and murder of innocents. It’s in the writings. Can this religion rescue itself? Can the good that it may be endowed with, and that may be found in its tenets, overcome its vast culture of violence that is being cultivated and executed daily? The world hopes so.

Too much of everything, including good things is bad. They are not bad in themselves, they are bad because people misuses them. Too much FREEDOM in America is giving me goose pimples even though i don’t live in America. At the end it’s all about politics. POLITICS WILL MAKES POLITICIAN AGREE TO BUILD MOSQUE IN THE VERY HEART OF THE WORST TERRORIST ATTACK IN AMERICAN SOIL. Conscience die in the face of appearing to be politically correct and support for freedom.

There is no Debate here ,the more information that comes out on this subject reinforces the the call for the Mosque to be moved. Let’s remember the precedent has been set Pope John Paul had a convent that was built to honor nuns that died in auschwitz moved from the camp to another site to address the objections of the jewish community .The organizers behind this Mosque should do the same to address the feelings and concerns of the families of 911 victims.

The woman who mourns her sister is correct – there is no closure. There is only learning to live with loss, finding some measure of comfort in memories and with family and friends. My heart goes out to her and to all the others who must bear that loss. They are in my thoughts and prayers as are those who died on that terrible day. One way to remember the dead is to reread the “Portraits in Grief” that the NY Times published in the days and months following. Then they are individuals, not statistics, for all of us. May they rest in peace.

The Islamists have demonstrated their pentient for violence, first physically (911) and now intellectually (Ground Zero mosque). Their is no possibility of reconciliation as long as this type of behavior continues; in effect we are learning why the Greeks and the Israeli’s have had several hundred year conflicts with them. Islamists have proven that they are as shrewd as the devil when it comes to the art of conflict and have demosntrated to us a special skill in their ability to recruit various apologist politicians (Obama, Bloomberg, Clinton) and news media (CNN) as we have seen over the past several months. It repulses me to see their soft spoken imam (now working for our state department) telling my fellow citizens that we somehow caused 911 to happen and that Islamist attacks were justified in that legitamate targets were attacked???? People know in their hearts that these people are evil but don’t know how to express their feeling or put their finger on exactly why they have this feeling. I think most people in the U.S.A. are having difficulty understanding that the Islamist tradition is not merely a religious cause but its a political movement and form of government that conflicts with the tenets of the freedom we have based our form of government on.

“I’ve been to Corboda, Spain,” he said, referring to the city that lent its name to the Cordoba Initiative, the entity behind controversial plans to build an Islamic cultural center six blocks away. “The mosque there was built to thank Allah for the defeat of the Christians.

“A mosque is built on the site of a winning battle. They are symbols of conquest. Hence we have a symbol of conquest here? I don’t think so.”

On doing a thorough search, the only place that expresses these thoughts almost exactly as does Mr. Chiarchiaro is Fox News. Big surprise.

The fact is that it’s a classic case of cherry picking information. Not all mosques are built on the site of a winning battle, though if someone can tell me when Muslims conquered the Upper East Side at 3rd and 96th I’m willing to hear it.

The Cordoba Mosque was not built to thank Allah for the defeat of the Christians. Only Fox News perpetrates this. After the Muslims defeated the Visigoths they spent 200 years converting the church to a Mosque.

And look, how is Muslims building Mosques in conquered territory any different than Christians building churches in conquered territory? You conquer a territory and you build a house of worship for your people to worship in. Duh.

It’s no surprise that Fox gins up arguments to support their political agenda. What is always so exasperating is that so many people fall for it.

I’m a NY-er, a liberal, a lover not a hater, but I don’t think the Community Center (including a Mosque) should replace the store was destroyed because we simply need to revitalize the area and not build controversy. This building is going to disrupt tourism and commerce, plain and simple. Put in a Pinkberry and bring some business back to the area. I’d be against ANYTHING that would do anything but bring people, business and tourists back to lower Manhattan. This proposed construction won’t achieve my goal of commerce. Just move it to the UES or something.

How can our Mayor be so blinded in seeing that we do not need a Mosque near Ground Zero. Do you really think the new members of the Mosque care? We’re talking about High Alert here in the city; usually Orange, and yet we take our guards completely down to let another unneeded and unwanted Mosque in our city.

america began as a dream of people longing for freedom.freedom of religion and opportunity. later, the dream was for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. along the way that freedom and opportunity was expanded to include people of color. later still, additional freedom was granted to women to vote, to have control over their bodies. all along the way, right up to this moment, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have been subject to so many restrictions and limitations and intimdations that the dream of america sometimes feels like a nightmare. victory mosque-what ? i am a catholic. i love my country. i BELIEVE. what would jesus do ? i don’t think he would be looking for a fight today.

It’s a shame that the potential building of a mosque has to overshadow what this day is meant to be – a remembrance of lives lost in arguably one of the most tragic days in the U..S.
The days of innocence are long gone in this country. Everything is magnified so many times over now that we give a sick and twisted minister more air time than the day-to-day problems of what really ails our nation.
If the Muslim community really wanted to bridge the continuous division and divide we experience on a daily basis, they would do the right thing and move the mosque elsewhere. This by far would be the most peaceful and sensible solution.
But then again, I guess I am living in a dream world. where others think not just of themselves, but of others pain and suffering and channel their energies into something positive and constructive.
I guess I can still dream.

While I feel for the man’s loss, it is ironic when he chose to only pick up bits and pieces of the history of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. It was indeed built on an old Visigothic church but not by force. The emir bought the church and retrofitted it to serve as a mosque for the growing Muslim population of the city. After the Spanish Reconquista when the armies of Spain expelled the Moors out of Spain (and subsequently forced Moor Muslims and Marano Jews to convert to Catholicism), a cathedral was built on the site of the mosque and the structure serves as a Catholic institution to the present day. It is this history of diversity and constant change as well as the original spirit of open worship (rather than forced conversion) that existed under the emirs of Cordoba that Imam Rauf chose the name of Cordoba Initiative. I would expect nothing less from the man who has spent a lifetime building bridges between New York’s Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities.

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